My friend Matt has Web pages
listing the books he has read since 2004. I wanted to keep better
track of what I read, so at the beginning of 2007, I started keeping a
list here. For one thing, changing jobs at the end of 2007 meant I had
lots more reading time than I used to, because I now have what amounts to
a public transit commute.

Dr. Gawande looks at how doctors, hospitals, and other institutions
work with the dying and the very old, learning a lot along the way and
applying some of it somewhat successfully within his own family. Not much
that was new to me, except perhaps how assisted living came into being and
why it's nothing like what its originator intended.

The first two books were pretty good, but obviously she couldn't figure
out a good way to wrap things up cleanly. I got bored at the pacing and
repetitiveness and lost all interest in the characters, and stopped
reading half-way through.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin. February
3, 2016

Hard-to-describe fantasy novel of power struggles among mortals and
among the gods. Well worth reading, first of a trilogy.

Farthing, by Jo Walton. February 22, 2016.

Mashup of a Josephine Tey or Agatha Christie novel and an
alternate history in which Great Britain makes peace with Hitler in 1941
but eventually things start going wrong politically. Surprising number of
odd errors; the first Dior lipstick was in 1955, so you wouldn't have
found it in 1949; there's a paragraph where names are, I think, mixed up,
because I'm sure that a particular married couple are not siblings,
etc.

.

The Broken Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin. February 29, 2016.

Excellent sequel to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms,
better-written and equally persuasive. What happens after two of the head
gods exile the third to mortal life.

Ha'penny, by Jo Walton. March 7, 2016.

Second in the alternate history series. Features Inspector Carmichael,
Himmler, Hitler, and Normanby; a cross-dressed Hamlet, and a family
bearing quite a resemblance to the Mitfords. You probably won't have
any problems telling who is who.

Half a Crown, by Jo Walton. March, 2016.

Third in the alternate history series. Structured similarly to the
first two books in the series, alternating chapters of Inspector
Carmichael and a female character, in this case his young ward. I wound up
feeling as though the entire series doesn't quite get into the characters'
emotional reactions and inner life as much as it might. Enjoyed the series
greatly anyway, as it could all so easily happen here.

Pieces of Modesty, by Peter O'Donnell. April 9, 2016.

Modesty Blaise short stories, mostly pretty good, but the last one is
appallingly racist. I needed something to get me kick started and reading
again after a somewhat difficult month.

Dark Triumph, by Robin LaFevers. April 13, 2016.

Second book in the His Fair Assassin trilogy. Some of the same problems
of tone and ahistorical behavior as Grave Mercy. Took it out of the
library rather than spend money on it. I might or might not finish the
last book in the series.

The Kingdom of Gods, by N.K. Jemisin. April 18, 2016.

Third in Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy, and the most puzzling. Never
mind that the biology of the gods is....odd...but I did not see how she
got from the situation at the beginning of the book to the situation at
the end of the book. The plotting seems muddled; it takes a peculiar
turn most of the way through, and the very end is a bit of a
cheat.

The Red Garden, by Alice Hoffman. April 23, 2016.

Interconnected short stories telling the story of a town and its
inhabitants, also its bears. Extremely charming and sometimes
unexpected.

The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu. June 30, 2016

Yes, two months between finishing books, because I got bogged down in
the first volume of The Story of the Stone and in this book. I did
not like it nearly as much as the others I know who've read it, and I
cannot tell whether it was the translation, opacity in the plotting,
difficulty in actually following the plot, or what. I think I had some
difficulty in following the time frame - which shifts - of the novel. Not
sure whether I will finish the series or not.

The Night Sessions, by Ken MacLeod. July 4, 2016.

Future Scotland, after the Faith Wars and a general social revolt
against religion. Robots, religion, and a police procedural - what more
could you want?

Even Dogs in the Wild, by Ian Rankin. July 11, 2016

The latest John Rebus / Siobhan Clark / Matthew Fox novel. The return
of Big Ger Cafferty, criminal orgs at war, a very old scandal, and a small
dog.

A God in Ruins, by Kate Atkinson. August 3, 2016.

Not exactly a sequel to Life After Life, but, well, it is. More
of the Todd family, especially Teddy. Another wonderful book.

The Nightmare Stacks, by Charles Stross. August 13,
2016.

The latest - no. 7 or 8 - of the Laundry Files novels. We have a new
viewpoint character, Dr. Alex Schwartz, whom you might remember as a
PHANG. He is completely adorable. Also, we've got an interesting invasion.
Also, possible the best dinner scene ever. Perhaps we'll see more of
Alex's family.

Three Tales from the Laundry, by Charles Stross. August 22,
2016.

What it sounds like. A novella and two short stories, all lots of
fun.

Throne of the Crescent Moon, by Saladin Ahmed. October 20,
2016.

Fantasy novel set in Arab/Muslim - ish world. Excellent writing and
imagination; first of a trilogy.

The Trespasser, by Tana French. October 28, 2016.

The sixth Dublin Murder Squad mystery. The viewpoint character is the
not-always-likeable detective Antoinette Conway. The mystery
is...complex.

The Girl with All the Gifts, by M. R. Carey. November 11,
2016.

Extremely disturbing, yet excellent, dystopian novel, set it a world
where an infection has turned the infected into a ravening hoard. The
premise is not far off the Parasite series I read last year and this, in
some ways, but this is a much better book.

Raising Steam, by Terry Pratchett. November 21, 2016.

The last Moist von Lipwig novel, sigh, about the coming of steam and
locomotives to Discworld. Superb.

Call the Midwife, by Jennifer Worth. November 24, 2016.

A young nurse-midwife becomes a lay member of an order of nuns and goes
to work in London's East End, c. mid-1950s. A memoir based on the author's
experiences; fascinating and horrifying in various ways, between the
extreme poverty of the postwar East End, the absence of ongoing medical
care & birth control, and the author's clear but unexamined class
issues.

I finished 31 books in 2015 and left Graham Robb's wonderful The
Discovery of France unfinished. Still trying to finish
Sleepwalkers about the start of WWI.

Of the 31 books, one was nonfiction, Helen MacDonald's H is for
Hawk. Eleven were by women, 21 by men. Several of the books by men had
excellent female protagonists, including those by Pratchett, Stross, and
O'Donnell, as retro as Modesty Blaise might be.

The Martian, by Andy Weir. December 9, 2015.

Uh, why has this book been such a huge hit? It is a page-turner, if you
don't get so bored with the title character's unending calculations of
air, water, food, energy, etc. that you roll your eyes and find something
more interesting to read. That's all necessary for his survival (he
is stranded on Mars after being separated from his crewmates during a
sandstorm and
accidentally, though understandably, left for dead), but OH MAN does it
get old. It also leaves no room for character development beyond "this guy
is very persistent and very nerdy." And also there is an elementary
arithmetic error on page 12 that I thought might turn out to be a plot
point....until the people at NASA repeated it many pages later. Why, oh,
why, did I not throw this book against the wall immediately???

Revelation Space, by Alastair Reynolds. November 30,
2015.

First novel by Alastair Reynolds, a 575-page brick with a number of
interwoven strands: a vanished race, a man obsessed with studying it,
politics, the history of the universe. I like it but can't help feeling
that it is too damn long for the story it is telling and takes an awfully
long time to bring the story to a conclusion.

Ancillary Mercy, by Ann Leckie. November 4, 2015.

Third of Leckie's books about Breq, former ancillary, now a
free-standing person, and the world she lives in. An excellent
more or less wrap-up.

The Shepherd's Crown, by Terry Pratchett. October 19,
2015.

Oh, waily, waily, waily! The last Discworld novel and the last Tiffany
Aching novel; the world is changing and it's easy enough to see that Sir
Terry had plans for the future. I am just so sad to have finished this
book and know that there will be no more.

Blood Hunt, by Ian Rankin. October 10, 2015.

The worst Rankin I have read. Not a Rebus mystery; a free-standing
crime/adventure/mystery novel. It's as though he had two plots about the
same character and mashed them up, badly. They kind of detract from one
another and some of it is over the line of believability.

Lock In, by John Scalzi. October 1, 2015.

It's science fiction and mystery, two genres at once! A well-executed
novel about a world where a mass illness has resulted in millions of
people with locked-in syndrome, here called Haden's syndrome after a
famous sufferer. A huge expenditure on researched led to a way to implant
a neural network in the heads of the locked-in, enabling them to remotey
control and effectively inhabit a robot-like device. A small class of
people can also temporarily accept into their own bodies the minds of the
locked-in. Yes, any number of interesting crimes can be committed. I would
not be at all surprised if this is the start of a series.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie.
September 19, 2015.

An early and really pretty bad Christie, the very first Poirot. Written
in 1916, published in 1920; shallow and very clockworkish.

An 18-year-old boy, youngest son of an Emperor father who has abandoned
him, unexpectedly becomes Emperor after his father and more acceptable
brothers die in an airship crash. A coming of age novel as well as a novel
of court intrigue.

Halting State, by Charles Stross. September 4,
2015.

Policing, economics, and 21st c. nerds.

The Annihilation Score, by Charles Stross. August, 2015.

The most recently-published Laundry Files book: Mo gets the spotlight
and mostly Stross gets the musical details right. He seems....a bit
unclear about musical forms (unlikely you'd have a violin sonata inside an
opera) and the Royal Albert Hall IS in fact unusually large for a
classical music venue; otherwise very satisfying, especially Mo's
developing professional friendships and relationships.

Sabre Tooth, by Peter O'Donnell. August, 2015.

The second Modesty Blaise novel.

Modesty Blaise, by Peter O'Donnell. August, 2015.

The first appearance in novel form of the reformed super-criminal
turned super-spy, and her excellent sidekick Willie Garvin.

The Rhesus Chart, by Charles Stross. August, 2015.

More of Bob, Mo, and Angleton, plus VAMPIRES.

The Apocalypse Codex, by Charles Stross. August, 2015.

Bob goes to Colorado with an outside asset code-named BASHFUL
INCDENIARY, who wears her hair in a chignon, and has a great male
sidekick.

The Fuller Memorandum, by Charles Stross. August 8, 2015

The third of the Laundry Files books, and really excellent.

Practical Magic, by Alice Hoffman. July 9, 2015.

Strange and wonderful book about the magical Owens women.

Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson. July 3, 2015.

Indescribably fascinating novel of parallel worlds and deja vu,
and maybe about whether you can rerun your life.

Midnight Fugue, by Reginald Hill. June 21, 2015

A missing cop, presumed dead; his bereaved wife; two killer in pursuit
of someone who might know their secrets. Dalziel is back from near death
and proves that he still has it.

Among Others, by Jo Walton. May 30, 2015.

A wonderful book writing in a distinctive voice, that of a young Welsh
woman recovering from a terrible tragedy, adjusting to a new life and new
family configuration, and about how books save lives. I loved the
dailiness of the book. It is a diary, so you get the ordinary,
about good and bad food, and how classes went, along with the
extraordinary (were fairies seen that day?). Also, the young
woman is remarkably sensible and grounded as well as having
access to the extraordinary.

Redshirts, by John Scalzi. May 28, 2015.

A not-entirely-satiricle space opera; the main plot, then three
follow-ups that round out the story quite well. Curious whether this is
characteristic os Scalizi, whose blog I read, and a little shocked by some
poorly-constructed sentences in the first chapter.

The Middle Temple Murder, by J. S. Fletcher. May
26, 2015.

Classic-era British murder mystery by a journalist/novelist who wrote
225+ books, including something approaching 100 novels. This was
represented to me as being rather better than it turned out to be.
Somewhat entertaining (but not enough for me to read anything more by this
guy), poorly paced, shallow, and completely implausible.

The Causal Angel, by Hannu Rajaniemi. May 22, 2015.

The third in Ranajiemi's space opera trilogy, finally resolving the
stories of Mieli, Jean le Flambeur, and Josephine. Well worth reading, but
start from The Quantum Thief.

The Voice from the Void, by William Le Queux. May
13, 2015

Bad 1920s murder mystery, more or less

H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald. April 25, 2015.

When Helen Macdonald's beloved photographer father dies suddenly and
unexpectedly of a heart attack, she goes a bit mad. In her grief, she
decides, on impulse, to purchase a goshawk, reputed to be a fearsome bird
and difficult to train. (She was already an experienced falconer.) This is
her memoir of training the goshawk, whom she names Mabel, and it's also an
exploration of T. H. White and his books, which include The
Goshawk, about his own attempt to train such a bird. Macdonald is a
magnificent writer and this is a superb book.

March Violets, by Philip Kerr. Sometime in April, 2015

The first of the Bernie Gunther detective novels. Gunther is a former
policeman, in Berlin, in...the 1930s. This book is set in 1936, with a
slight backdrop of the Olympic games, held in Berlin that year. I started
reading this MONTHS ago and it was very stop and start. I will probably
finish the trilogy, but I did not love this book. It is hard-boiled but
attempts to use, in English, the equivalents of presumably-contemporary
German slang, and...that holds things up for me.

Symbiont, by Mira Grant. March 28, 2015.

Second of three novels (third is not yet published). Things
only get worse for the gang from Parasite

Parasite, by Mira Grant. March 18, 2015.

Science
fiction / horror / thriller novel involving a biotech company that has
succeeded in selling the US and perhaps much of the world on a biological
implant that treats autoimmune and other diseases from the inside. The
implant is based on tapeworms. Things....eventually go wrong. First
of three novels

The Golem and the Jinni, by Helen Wecker. March
14, 2015.

This is a thoroughly charming book, the author's debut novel. A golem and a jinni meet in NYC,
around 1890, and various complications ensue. Magical realism on the lower
east side? Well, kind of, yes. I love both the title characters,
too.

The Green Glass Sea, by Ellen Klages. January 24, 2015.

YA novel about a nerdy young girl who winds up in Los Alamos starting
in 1943 - a time when Los Alamos wasn't even on the map owing to a certain
secret project. Moving, and an entirely excellent portrayal of what it's
like to be a young nerd, how people makes friends, and how adults can
really really be good to the children around them.

The Moving Toy Shop, by Edmund Crispin. January 19, 2015.

Another Gervase Fen mystery, this one set before the war, in Oxford.
Ridiculous coincidences, especially that lorry driver who conveniently
turns up twice, an overly convoluted plot, one where the murder is
basically completely implausible. Do people REALLY write wills like that??
Only in pre-war British mysteries.

Swan Song, by Edmund Crispin. January 13, 2015

An extremely silly
mystery about the murder of the baritone during rehearsals for a postwar
performance of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurenberg by a
British cast, in Oxford. The silliness includes blatant mishandling of
evidence and, of course, the involvement of an amateur sleuth. Not to
mention, for a book set in 1947 or 48, everyone is remarkably well fed and
there's no sign of RATIONING. Crispin gets the musical details right, except perhaps for the soprano's
repertory, which includes Eva, Salome, and....Mimi? Not impossible, I
suppose. But whoever named the book blundered: obviously the opera in
question should have been Lohengin.

In 2014, I finished 28 books. The list below includes two books I did
not finish, the novel Rupert of Hentzau and the musicological study
The Sound of Medieval Song. As I'm writing this at 6:27 p.m. on
December 31, I suppose I could wrap up Rupert. I am in the middle
of, and will be finishing, The Sleepwalkers, Christopher Clark's
study of "how Europe went to war" in 1914. The count below includes one
play, four graphic novels, six books I'd call mysteries, eleven fantasy
and science fiction novels, three books that might be considered
historical fiction, and some odd ends. Note that two of the fantasy novels
were the fourth and fifth Song of Ice & Fire novels, which are worth two
or three normal novels each. The best book of the year might be The
Hare with Amber Eyes, which I am pressing into peoople's hands, but
boy, did I love Hild and Code Name Verity a lot.

I read four novels by Charles Stross, two by Anne Leckie, two by
Elizabeth Weidn, two by Hannu Rajaiemi, two by Jo Nesbo, and two by George
R. R. Martin.

The Trade of Queens, by Charles Stross. December 31,
2014.

The sixth of the Merchant Princes books. His publishers announced a
while back that three more of these books would be coming, with the first
to be published in 2015, and a good thing it is. DEFINITELY feels like a
middle book, because it is.

Ancillary Sword, by Ann Leckie. December 28, 2014.

The sequel to Leckie/s award-winning Ancillary Justice, the
continued tale of Breq, now assigned Fleet Commander of Mercy of Kalr,
and the continued story of the evens of Ancillary Justice. I'm
betting that there is a book called Ancillary Mercy coming, because
the story isn't over.

The Revolution Business, by Charles Stross. November 19,
2014

The sixth (fifth?) of the Merchant Princes books. Hoo boy, are this one
and
number 5 "middle books," but I am not picking up Trade of Queens
just yet to see whether and how he has wrapped up the story.

The Secret Place, by Tana French. November 7,
2014

French's latest Dublin Murder Squad book; like the others, it is
intricately plotted, with bits of detail revealed slowly over the course
of the book. Her special trick here is that there are two timelines
running parallel. One, in the present, takes place over the course of one
day. The other takes places in the past over a period of months, closing
in on the present. It's set, mostly, in an exclusive girls' high school,
with lots of characters from the parallel boys' school nearbye. As always,
very, very well done.

The Merchants' War, by Charles Stross. Date?

More of the Merchant Princes.

Rule 34, by Charles Stross. October 20, 2014.

A shady character dies in dramatic and highly suspicious circumstances,
and a pile of other events makes it look like it's not an isolated
incident. Artificial intelligence, central Asian politics, CDOs, 21st
century policing, alternative sexuality, all rolled into one highly
entertaining ball.

Saints of the Shadow Bible, by Ian Rankin. September 30,
2014.

Billed as a Matthew Fox novel, but it's both a Fox and John Rebus
novel. A car accident, a suspicious death, an old, old case involving
Rebus and his fellow police from his first assignment. Unusually has some
third-party viewpoint sections.

Ancillary Justice, by Anne Leckie. September 28, 2014.

Multiple-award-winning space opera/political thriller/gender bending
mystery. It won all those awards for a reason; highly recommended. You
will eventually stop being confused, too.

The Hare
with Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal. September 10, 2014.

I
flirted with this when it was newly published, but somehow never bought a
copy. A friend gave me her extra and now I have read it. A book
that I am going to force on everyone I know who hasn't read it already. A
wonderful and almost indescribable family history/memoir revolving around
a collection of netsuke assembled in the 19th century by one of the
author's relatives. Although he is an Englishman with a Dutch name, he
comes from a once-fabulously-wealthy and prominent Jewish banking family,
and, well, thereby hangs an involved, fascinating, and sometimes
heartbreaking tale.

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. September 4,
2014.

If you like Tana French, you will like this very complex
suspense/murder mystery.

Special
Exits, by Joyce Farmer. August 26, 2014.

I started this about
six or so weeks back, right after reading Roz Chast's Can't We Talk
About Something More Pleasant?, but had to take a break. The two books
cover very much the same territory: the slow decline of two old couples,
told as graphic novels.. Where they differ is that Chast's book is
hilarious as well as poignant and sad, while Farmer's book is
straightforward, sad, and doom-haunted. You can see the catastrophes
coming, you know they will be bad, you know the book will be merciless and
that you won't have anything to laugh about. That said, the parents in
Special Exits seem much less neurotic and self-centered than
Chast's parents, and certainly much more endearing that Chast's really
awful mother. (The awfulness is reserved for their Siamese cat, Ching, who
bites and scratches all the time, gets underfoot, and hates most people.)
There's no sense that the daughter in the book is anything but loving; she
has none of the ambivalence that Chast has about helping her parents out.
It is harrowing in some ways, but mostly because you want Lars and Rachel
to accept more help, and you want them to get help, especially medically,
much sooner than they do. The drawing is beautifully expressive, the story
poignant.

His Fair Assassin Book 1: Grave Mercy, by Robin LaFevers.
August 25, 2014.

Interesting historical fantasy about a convent of nuns trained as
assassins, working for St. Mortain, an old god now viewed as a saint
because the world is Christianized. Also, it is the late 15th c. It is not
exactly historically accurate; there is some clumsiness in the plotting
(wait, you're telling me they send one of their assassins out without
making sure she has actually studied relevant background materials? They
train the assassins in poisons but not the antidotes? Really??) and in
the writing (uh...I see that "quirk" is a verb, but I don't have to like
it...also, why weren't those shifts of tone to modern idiom not edited
out?), but entertaining YA anyway. I won't buy the next two books - I got
this one used - but I'll take them out of the library.

The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene. July 28, 2014.

My girlfriend got this from the library because we are seeing Jake
Heggie's opera of the same name in a couple of weeks. Man, Greene sure
could write, but oh my god. The principal narrator, Maurice Bendrix, is an
odious human. The book is mercifully short, so I didn't have to spend that
much time inside his head. A little tough to disentangle the religious
material from the slightly sordid base story, also.

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, by Roz Chast.
July 25, 2014.

The wonderful cartoonist's funny and poignant graphic novel about her
parents' decline, old age, and deaths. Highly recommended.

The Sound of Medieval Song, by Timothy J. McGee. Not
finished yet

I spent about six weeks reading 100 pages of this 180-page book, and
here's a quotation that will tell you why.

To be a longa the first note of the phrase (case 1) must be
the pitch of the modal final. The second note of a multi-note syllable
(case 2) is only a long if it is not preceded or followed by another one
of the five exceptions. A single plicated note (case 3) is a longa when
the note plicated is itself written as a longa. If it is separately
written it has the value of an imperfect longa, but if it is ligated it
could be a perfect longa or even a four-unit longa. (The actual value
would depend on neume shape and notational context.) Also, a pair of
plicated, ligated notes with the written value of two breves could have
the value of breve-longa if they are followed or preceded by a
longa.

It's about interpreting medieval music notation according to medieval
theorists. Let me put it this way: that very pure line and sound that you
hear on chant recordings is nothing like how the stuff soudned way back
when. But don't ask me to explicate the above paragraph. I'd have to read
a couple of hours' worth of material to be able to explain it to you. I
only half understand it myself

Rupert of Hentzau by Anthony Hope. Not finished yet.

The sequel to The Prisoner of Zenda. Even more
complications.

The Prisoner of Zenda, by Anthony Hope. June 11, 2014.

A grand adventure story that spawned a genre, the Ruritanian romance:
the younger brother of a British lord goes on holiday to Ruritania just in
time to stand in for the King at his own coronation, which the King can't
attend because he has been drugged and imprisoned by his evil younger
(illegitimate) brother. Add in the villain Rupert of Hentzau and the
beautiful Princess Flavia, and complications ensue. The basis of many
films and parodies, and a ripping good yard of its type.

The Fractal Prince, by Hannu Rajaniemi. May 29? 30?,
2014.

Sequel to The Quantum Thief. I am not entirely sure I understand
the plots of these two novels, but I did enjoy reading them. The story is
not yet done, too.

The Quantum Thief, by Hannu Rajaniemi. May 22?,
2014.

Complex science fiction story concerning a possibly resurrected thief,
a woman on a mission, the secret masters who really control things, and a
couple of different civilizations? societies? more or less co-existing in
our solar system.

Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein. April 27,
2014.

I've been reading this one for a couple of weeks, but put it down a
couple of times. Quite a bit weaker than the fabulous Code Name
Verity, with pacing and tone problems and perhaps too much story
packed into a comparatively short book. Also, less believability on some
level or another.

Titus Andronicus, by William Shakespeare, April
23, 2014.

Shakespeare's bloodiest play, a swift and brutal revenge
tragedy.

A Dance with Dragons, by George R.R. Martin. April 3,
2014.

Well, he could have reduced the Dany story line by 80% with no harm,
eliminated another story line completely, and shrunken almost everything
else by simply omitting his description of every step everyone takes and
every meal they eat. Doesn't this guy have an editor??

A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin. March 14,
2014.

GOD what a slog. SO much worse than the first three books. Also, what a
damn stupid decision, to split up the original monster into two books in
which the action is simultaneous/parallel rather than
consecutive/serial. Of course, I bought A Dance with Dragons
the second I finished it.

Death Comes for the Fat Man, by Reginald Hill. March
9, 2014.

A few pages into the book, an explosion near kills Andy Dalziel and
Peter Pascoe, leaving Dalziel comatose and Pascoe trying to figure out
what happened and why. A fine, fine mystery, with some oddities, and
perhaps an open question or two at the end.

Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein, February 24,
2014

Utterly gripping, engrossing puzzle of a novel, about two
young women who are best friends during WWII. That doesn't begin to
get at the story, really, but a great read, wonderful book

Hyperbole and a Half, by Allie Brosh, February 8,
2014

Hilarious memoir-in-drawings by a woman with a long-suffering
boyfriend, two dysfunctional dogs, and chronic depression. You might
know her drawing style: Clean all the things!

Police, by Jo Nesbo, January 21, 2014.

I am completely caught up on the Harry Hole series, excepting no. 2,
which will finally be published in English this spring some time. This is
perhaps the most twisted and terrifying of the novels yet.

Phantom, by Jo Nesbo. January something 2014

Harry is back from Hong Kong, for an unfortunate reason. Can he do what
he needs to do? And what happens next with...

Fantastic and very funny graphic novel about an ongoing war between
corporate food/cooking and crunchy organic food/cooking, with possibily
recognizable real people making appearances in leading roles on the
organic side. (One of them is EASILY recognizable; the other will take
most people a little work.) Helps if you've read something by Bourdain and
seen the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi."

Hild, by Nicola Griffith. January 3, 2014.

Really
wondering whether I omitted a book, because I started this one on December
9, buying it from Kobo in Honolulu Airport two minutes after reading a
friend's comments about it. (Oh, wait; I read 90 pages of The Dante
Club, in hard copy.) Anyway, this is a superbly written and researched
historical novel about Hild, following her in the early 7th century from
childhood to young adulthood as King Edwin of Northumbria's niece and
seer. I do not want to say much more than that, but it is wonderful and I
cannot wait for the NEXT novel to come out, whenever that is, considering
that this took ten years of research.

Well, I didn't finish those two nonfiction books, and apparently I did
not complete ANY nonfiction books in 2013, although I have two in process.
I hang my head in shame.

What I did read was approximately 27
books, nearly all of them genre novels, either mysteries (mostly police
procedurals) or s.f. The best book of the year was Kristin
Lavransdatter, Sigrid Undset's great historical novel of medieval
Norway, in the wonderful new(ish) Tiina Nunnely translation. Highly,
highly recommended. Other favorites include Alison Bechdel's Are You My
Mother?, Neil Gaiman's American Gods (a superb dark fantasy
novel), and Christopher Priest's The Prestige..

Neptune's Brood, by Charles Stross. December 4, 2013.

That's an arbitrary finish date because I can't remember when I
finished it. Interstellar banking and economics made fun; also family
conflict, fraud, interplanetary travel, and pirates. Great fun,
though I thought it would be longer, somehow

The Leopardby Jo Nesbo. November 23, 2013

These books are getting enormously convoluted in plot (and I figured
out part of it in advance of harry), but I am definitely enjoying his
personal development, such as it is.

The Snowman, by Jo Nesbo. November, 2013.

I am starting to beat Harry to the solution! Not the full story, but I
figured out the Bad Guy before he did. Terrifying ending here.

While I wait for Harry Hole No. 2 to be published (February, 2014) and
as long as I am home sick, catching forward on the series, as it were. Yet
another serial killer on the loose in Oslo; Harry's alcohol problems,
etc.

Standing in Another Man's Grave, by Ian Rankin. November 13,
2011.

The return of John Rebus - as I said a while back, Rankin left his
future somewhat unsettled at the end of Exit Music. Here he is on
the cold case squad, investigating (and eventually solving) some old
missing persons cases - and also butting heads with Matthew Fox of the
Complaints

The Prestige, by Christopher Priest. October 25, 2013.

This novel was the basis of a pretty good film by Christopher Nolan,
starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. I've wanted to read the book
ever since, and what do you know? It is a more complex and subtle story,
beautifully told and really rather spooky, than the story told in the
movie. Highly recommended.

The Bat, by Jo Nesbo. September ?, 2013

The first of the Harry Hole books, and fairly weak by comparison to 3 &
4.

The Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain M. Banks. September 23,
2013

The last Culture novel from the late Iain M. Banks, who died earlier
this year of cancer, and sadly not quite as good as most of the earlier
Culture novels. I had some ideas about the eponymous sonata; they turned
out to be wrong, but it might have been more satisfying if I'd been
right.

Nemesis, by Jo Nexbo. Early September,
2013.

Fourth (second published in English) in the Harry Hole (pronounced
HOO-ley) detective series. Grim
and complex.

Ask the Parrot, by Richard Stark. September 2, 2013.

One of the later Parker books. The parrot is not actually an important
plot point.

Dolores Claiborne, by Stephen King. August 31, 2013.

In preparation for Tobias Picker's opera, natch. King can't QUITE keep
from writing a horror novel, no matter how hard he tries. It'll be
interesting to see what the librettist and composer do with ths
plot.

The Impossible Dead, by Ian Rankin. August 27, 2013.

The second Malcolm Fox (& co.) Complaints novel, the Complaints being
the police unit that investigates allegations of wrongdoing and other
complaints against the police.

Are You My Mother?, by Alison Bechdel. August 11, 2013.

Bechdel's graphical memoir, which is not exactly about her mother, but
much more about Bechdel's internal process and therapeutic process of
dealing with her mother. Gorgeously drawn and fascinating, because Bechdel
writes about her mother and her mother's life, her own life, her
therapists, the writings
and life of Virginia Woolfe, and the writings and life of analyst Donald
Winnicot, who was clearly a brilliant and sensitive man. LOVED, although
this book has not been loved by people I know to the extent that Bechdel's
first memoir, Fun Home, was.

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. August 8,
2013

Superb fantasy novel by Gaiman, not readily describable.

A Feast for Crows, by George R. R. Martin.

I've read somewhat more than half but I need a BREAK from these
people. I'll finish it in the fall some time.

A Storm of Swords, by George R. R. Martin. Early July,
2013?

Book 3 of A Song of Ice and Fire; further adventures of the
Starks, Lannisters, Baratheons, and all of their friends, enemies, and
rivals.

The Gnostic Gospels, by Elaine Pagels.

I have only read half but plan to finish it before returning it to a
friend. Background for Mark Adamo's The Gospel of Mary
Magdalene.

The Redbreast, by Jo Nesbo, May 24, 2013.

The first available Harry Hole novel in English (the first in the
series will be available later this year, finally). Well-written,
complexly plotted, interesting and strongly drawn characters. I am
surprised by only one or two loose ends, though one of them leaves open
further encounters in future books. I will read more of them.

The Jennifer Morgue, by Charles Stross, May 15 (?), 2013

The second Laundry files book. Not quite as funny as the first but very
entertaining nonetheless.

The Clan Corporate, by Charles Stross, May, 2013.

The third Merchant Princes book. Things get more complicated, yes, they
do.

Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset, May, 2013.

Finished the second and third books of Undset's giant historical novel,
in the newish (and really great) translation. What a book! It's a deeply
detailed, very readable, complex novel set in 14th c. Norway, featuring
Kristin, her reckless and feckless husband Erland Nikulausson, their
children, and their extended families. Densely plotted, memorable
characters, a lot of fun, with some intense and touching scenes and plot
points.

The Atrocity Archives, by Charles Stross, April 28,
2013.

The first of Charlie Stross's James Bond meets Cthulu meets Office
space series, the Laundry Files, about a branch of the British civil
service that fights occult manifestations among us. Smart and very, very
funny, but it helps if you are um a bit of a geek.

Railsea, by China Mieville, April 21, 2013.

A really weird novel, possibly a juvenile?, riffing on
Moby-Dick, and not only weird but wonderful

[nameless book written by a friend, sometime in
March

The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. March 1,
2013

The children's classic about a couple of neglected, yet spoiled,
upper-class children who meet and, with the help of a "magic poor boy" and
his kindly sister & mother, renovate a neglected garden and turn into
decent humans. Well, that's what you think it's about. It's actually
Christian Science propaganda: Medicine bad! Nature good!

The Wreath, by Sigrid Undset. January 31, 2013.

Somewhat of a cheat here: I have finished the first of the three
volumes making up the saga-like historical novel Kristin
Lavransdatter, by Norwegian Nobel Laureate Sigrid Undset, but since
each volume is around 350 pages...A fabulous book, fairly slow-starting
but with plenty of human drama to come. Set in the 14th century, it's the
story of a young woman's coming of age. You learn a lot about her family
(nobels, but they farm for a living), religious life, social mores, in a
world not far from pagan society but now Christian. If you're going to
read this, don't even think of getting the older (1920s? 30s?) English
translation, which badly misrepresents Undset's forthright prose by
burying it in thee and thou. Make sure you read the newer translation by
Tiina Nunnely, published by Penguin. (Tiina is not a typo.).

The Hidden Family, by Charles Stross. January 20?, 2013.

Second of the Merchant Family series. I liked this one better than the
first, will probably proceed with the series.

Monsters of Men, by Patrick Ness. January 14, 2013.

The last book of the Chaos Walking trilogy. Brrrr. Still brutal, though
in this book, the Spackle have a voice and...some good things do happen.
Still, almost unrelieved misery and awfulness, and all too realistic in
that way.

Strip Jack, by Ian Rankin. January 12, 2013.

One of Rankin's John Rebus books, and a very good one indeed. Less
drunkness, more of the great cop. And I have a sneaking suspicion that I
read this one eight or ten years ago.

As always, the goal was to read more non-fiction. I didn't succeed,
in part because I started, but did not finish, two important
nonfiction books, Tony Judt's Postwar and Marc Reisner's
Cadillac Desert. Perhaps in 2013?

Meanwhile, I read a total
of 29 books. I'd feel worse about that low total if the two George R.R.
Martin books and the two Trollopes weren't each the length of two or three
typical novels. I also started, but have not finished, The Hobbit
and Bleak House. I did not list a book I read in manuscript,
so I guess I can reasonably say I read 30 books in 2012.

A Clash of Kings, by George R. R. Martin. December 30,
2012.

The second book in Martin's long-running, perhaps never-to-be-finished,
A Song of Ice and Fire. This is roughly parallel to season 2 of the
HBO series. Reading it fills in a bunch of background and clarifies a few
inexplicable bits in the series; it also provides an object lesson in what
you have to do in adopting a long book for another medium. I am still
bothered by his difficulty with maintaining a consistent tone, and
occasionally I wanted to take a red pencil to the book.

Broken Harbour, by Tana French. November 25, 2012.

The author's latest, with all the strengths (gripping plotting, tangled
relationships) and weaknesses (he WHAT?) of her previous novels.

Summer and Bird, by Katherine Catmull. November 15,
2012.

A marvelously lyrical and beautiful book, with the force and power of a
fairy tale and exceptionally strongly drawn and believable
characters

Ninety Percent of the Game is Half Mental, by Emma Span.
October 25, 2012

Funny and charming book about baseball, being a baseball fan, being a
Yankees fan, and being a sportswriter.

A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin, October 24,
2012.

The first of several doorstop-sized novels in Martin's
will-he-ever-finish series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Well done, gripping,
lots of plot and lots of character.

Playing for the Ashes, by Elizabeth George, September 19,
2012?.

Actually, I got bored and threw it against the wall.

Nightshade, by Jonelle Patrick. August 17, 2012

First novel by a friend of mine, a mystery set in modern Tokyo in
several different worlds: it's a police procedural, a novel about the clsh
between the modern and the traditional, and a look at some of the odder
subcultures of Japan. I learned a few things, too! Did you know that in
Japan, an email address can be tied to a phone, not to an email
provider?? Lots of fun, recommended.

Sidetracked, by Henning Mankell. July 28, 2012

The third Kurt Wallender.

Seeker's Mask, by P.C. Hodgell. July 13, 2012.

The continuing adventures of Jame, the Kencyr; her brother Tori; those
around them. Curioser and curioser!

Death's Jest-Book, by Reginald Hill. June 13, 2012.

I made a big mistake: this book is a direct follow-on to Dialogs of
the Dead, its immediate predecessor, and it would have read very, very
different if I had known that and read Dialogs first. Don't make my
mistake.

Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel. May 26,
2012.

The second of Mantel's Thomas Cromwell historical novels; as good as
Wolf Hall, the first.

Every Patient Tells a Story, by Lisa Sanders, MD. May 16,
2012.

Finally! Non-fiction! Dr. Sanders writes a NY Times column about
diagnosis and, more recently, a You Be the Doctor column. This book is about
the art of diagnosis and, less obviously, the importance of the physical
exam.

The Complaints, by Ian Rankin. May 10, 2012.

Still home sick, so in the last 24 hours, I read my second Ian Rankin
of the week. This one seems to be the first in a new series (The
Impossible Dead appears to be the second) about the cops who clean up
after corrupt or misbehaving cops. Well-written, well-executed, absorbing,
with a fine central character, Malcolm Fox.

The Man From Beijing, by Henning Mankell. May 9, 2012

Two mysteries in two days = home sick. This is a stand-alone novel, not
one of the Wallander novels. The first half is better and more interesting
than the second, because the base premise is so unfuckingbelievable. Also,
as seems typical of him, major unanswered questions that he doesn't seem
to realize are unanswered.

Doors Open, by Ian Rankin. May 8, 2012.

Ian Rankin is best known as the author of the John Rebus detective
novels. This is a one-off caper novel, set in Edinburgh and making one
brief passing reference only to Rebus (an in-joke that you wouldn't even
get unless you've read the Rebus books). The plot is preposterous in many
many ways - SO MANY - but the book is reasonably entertaining.

Dark of the Moon, by P. C. Hodgell. May 5, 2012.

I remembered a lot less of this than of God Stalk. It is very,
very good, continuing the story of Jame and continuing the terrible
copy-editing.

The Secret Telephone, by William Le Queux. May 2, 2012

Bad 1920s thriller. Why? I LEFT MY REAL BOOK AT WORK and read this in
24 hours, mostly on the shuttle.

God Stalk, by P.C. Hodgell. April 20, 2012.

Third or fourth time I've read this one, though the last time was more
than 20 years ago. EXCELLENT book, still, though I quailed at "effect" for
"affect" and "pallet" for "palate."

Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer, by Wesley Stace,
April 10, 2012.

Whoa. A wry and sometimes funny novel of music in England and the life
of a young composer who....um, well, I think you should just read it. I do
wish there had been better copy-editing; the character name spelled
differently on two pages, the extra word here, the two different
statements of the age of one of the characters.

The Dogs of Riga, by Henning Mankell, early April, 2012.

The second Wallender; jumps the shark pretty badly a couple of
times.

Faceless Killers, by Henning Mankell, early April, 2012.

The first of the Kurt Wallender police procedurals. Bleak, cold, bleak,
cold. I think he misses one great plot opportunity; why don't the police
immediately hire that young woman with the great memory?!

The Eustace Diamonds, by Anthony
Trollope, late March, 2012.

The third of the Palliser novels, another 750-page doorstop. You could
read this one as a stand-alone; the Pallisers and their circle appear, but
they are peripheral to the story of Lizzie Eustace and her diamonds. Well,
perhaps I mean "her" diamonds. The ownership of the gems is in dispute
from the first pages of the novel. Lizzie is quite something; young,
beautiful, charming, clever (but not intelligent) and pathologically
incapable of telling the truth. Whether she is deluded, scheming, unable
to see the consequences of her actions, or some combination of the above,
I do not know, but Trollope as ever paints a fascinating picture of
society and women's lives. And the eternal question of who will
marry who, and why, and of course there is a fox hunt.

Over My Dead Body, by Rex Stout. Mid/late March, 2012.

Archie & Nero, at it again, this time with help from Nero's daughter
(or "daughter").

On Beulah Height, by Reginald Hill. February 23,
2012.

I think this is no. 15 of 25 of the Dalziel & Pascoe books. It's
intricately plotted and pretty intense. Probably helps to have some
familiarity with Mahler's Kindertotenlieder.

The Irish member of Parliament, that is. A great coming of age novel; a
young man finds his way in world, in Parliament and in government. The
second of the Palliser (aka Parliamentary) novels. Trollope is also
concerned with whom Phineas will marry and with the fate of a woman who
marries the wrong man.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
February 3, 2012.

I last read "Gatsby" in high school or junior high. I now must
ask: Whatever is this book's enormous reputation based on? The writing is
often clunky and graceless, the dialog wooden, the plot trite, and the
people loathesome. Not much to like! So much a young man's book about
other young and very immature people.

World of Wonders, by Robertson Davies. January 18, 2012.

The third book in the Deptford Trilogy, World of Wonders is
everyone's second fav book in the trilogy except mine. I have always like
The Manticore better. But this time around, I liked World of
Wonders more than in the past (I think). For one thing, I have a
greater appreciation of Magnus's growth. For another, I was fascinated by
both the Tresizes and the look you get at their style of acting and
theater. For a third, I greatly enjoyed the third view of Dunstan Ramsey
and Boy Staunton, and the different views of Magnus and the Tresizes that
you got from Roly.

The Manticore, by Robertson Davies. January 9, 2012.

The second book in the Deptford Trilogy. Like Fifth Business,
just as good the four time as the first. Maybe better, because I have more
understanding of why I like it so much.

I like the Manticore better than anyone I know. I have some insight
into why I like it so much, from this reading. I believe it's because you
get one narrative from Dunstan Ramsey in Fifth Business, then David
Staunton goes over quite a bit of the same ground and suddenly some things
look rather different. It's not that Ramsey is an unreliable narrator.
It's just that he is not at all interested in Caroline or Netty or some of
the complex relationships within the Staunton family. For that matter, he
is not very interested in David. Some of what David explicitly discusses
can be inferred from Ramsey's narrative, but more easily in retrospect,
after reading The Manticore.

Also, I really love how the analytical process is discussed.

Three Men Out, by Rex Stout.
January 2, 2012.

Three novellas or long short stories or something. Nero & Archie. The
usual.

It's January 1, 2012, and I did, more or less, manage to read more
non-fiction. I did this by doing a little jamming on non-fiction at the
end of the year.

I think I am starting 2012 with non-fiction - a new book and also by
finishing a book I've been 95% done with for almost a year.

The 2012 count: 3 nonfiction books (four if you count the one I'm
almost done with...), 27 fiction (including a couple of very short books
and a couple of very long ones), 1 novel thrown against the wall partway
through. I'm also still picking up Berlioz's memoirs from time to time
and will finish the book eventually. Also about 180 pages into
Phineas Finn on my phone and thinking I need hard copy.

The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson, December 30,
2011.

A popular history of both the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition and the
serial killer Dr. H.H. Holmes, who killed at least 9, probably closer to
30, possibly as many as 200 people in the 1880s and 90s. Pretty good,
definitely an overview, but with many exceptionally interesting architects
and other people among the personages.

Kraken, by China Mieville, December 19, 2011.

When this novel opens, you're apparently in the London many of us know
and love; within fifteen or twenty pages, things start to get odd and just
keep getting weirder and weirder. About 300 pages in, I started wondering
wondering how on earth he would keep the plot going for another 200 pages;
somehow, he does, and it's quite a virtuoso performance. Great characters
and plotting and two of the creepiest assassins for hire you will ever
meet.

The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee,
Dec. 16, 2011

Finally finished this one, which I've been reading
off and on for quite some time. One of the NY Times's Best Books of the
Year for 2010, both fascinating and frustrating. It needed somewhat
heavier editing to give it a better story arc, not to mention heavier
editing to avoid the several places where the author repeats himself two
pages apart and, worse, the usually-breathless, journalistic prose. Also:
integrating illustrations with the text would have been smart.

Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies. Dec. 16,
2011

Just as good the fourth time through as the first three. I wish the
jacket copy did not unreasonably focus on what is not really the central
question of the book, though of course the desire to explain does drive
Dunstan Ramsey's memoir.

Packing for Mars, by Mary Roach. Dec. 15, 2011.

I appreciate gravity ever so much more than I did even two weeks
ago.

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, by Terry
Pratchett. Nov. 25, 2011.

A talking cat, some talking rats, and a stupid-looking kid: the
Pratchett take on the Pied Piper. Hilarious.

The Ask and the Answer, by Patrick Ness. November 12,
2011.

The second book in the Chaos Walking series; equally brilliantly
written, equally grim. Superb working out of the situation set up at the
end of The Knife of Never Letting Go. Sure, the middle book of a
trilogy but does not have that unfinished feel to it. Must run out and buy
book 3.

Hypothermia, by Arnaldur Indridason. November 9,
2011.

A mystery novel set in Iceland, featuring Inspector Erlendur;
I take it to be one of a series. It is understated and took a while to
gather momentum; the translation has some jarring Britishisms. A decent
read; might take more of the series out of the library.

The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes. November 5,
2011.

Elegant, but I would not have given it the Man Booker
Prize.

The Adventures of the Gay Triangle, by William Le
Queux. October something, 2011.

Early 1920s British espionage novel; xenophobic but Francophile, also
contains some random anti-Semitism. Fun otherwise, wish it had more cool
gadgets. Not particularly well written.

The Witch of Exmoor, by Margaret Drabble. Thrown
against the wall around October 1, 2011.

It took about 1/3 of the book for me to realize that I disliked the
characters, the voice, the pacing, and the plot. She's no A.S. Byatt, is
all I can say.

The Children's Book, by A.S. Byatt. September
16, 2011.

I finally finished A. S. Byatt's "The Children's Book," which was
absolutely wonderful, probably the best novel I have read in....I don't
know how long. It was short-listed the year "Wolf Hall" won the Man Booker
- now, I liked "Wolf Hall" a whole lot and am looking forward to the
sequel that Hilary Mantel is evidently working on, but holy moley, WHAT
were the judges thinking? "The Children's Book" is a magnificent
accomplishment, even better than "Wolf Hall." Every sentence is so, so
beautiful, and Byatt is a master of an intricate plot. I completely loved
it, will be telling all my friends to read it.

If you read any of the reviews that were published when "The Children's
Book" came out and they discouraged you from reading it, ignore them. Some
of the things I saw in the reviews - which I read after finishing the book
- are just wrong. Yes, the book has a whole lot of historical background
in it, and the history acts to enrich the lives of the characters, in
fact, the history is essential to how Byatt captures the time in which the
characters live (a couple of decades plus a few years, starting around
1894).

The pacing of the book is one of its marvels, and I'm reasonably
certain
that reviewers, reading under the gun of a deadline, read it _too fast_. I
read it at a leisurely pace, over the course of about two months. Partly,
we have the hardcover and it was a pain to lug around - but mostly I
wanted it to last as long as possible. I did NOT want to hurry through it.
That's because every sentence is so, so beautiful.

If you like Byatt and have not read it, you have a marvel waiting for
you.

Faithful Place, by Tana French. Sept. 9, 2011.

The latest by the Irish mystery writer. A lost love, family secrets,
three generations of a fairly messed-up family.

Surface Detail, by Iain M. Banks. Sept. 2, 2011.

The most recent Culture book. A satisfying read!

Room, by Emma Donoghue. July 29, 2011.

A harrowing story, also a heartening one, written in a most unusual and
sympathetic voice. I hesitate to say more, but highly recommend
this.

Flashfire, by "Richard Stark." July 24, 2011.

One of the later Parker novels, fast-moving and strongly
plotted.

Transition, by Iain Banks, or maybe Iain M. Banks. July 20,
2011.

Not a Culture book (apparently), though it's listed with the Culture
books on the Also By page opposite the title page. Eh. The plot doesn't
come together all that well and is presented in a fragmentary fashion. I
hope Surface Detail is better.

The Family Trade, by Charles Stross. July 8,
2011.

The first of the Merchant Princes books. Okay, I'll probably finish the
series, but not in a huge hurry.

House of Suns, by Alastair Reynolds. July 4, 2011.

Space opera. Really, really good space opera.

The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness. June 24,
2011.

The first book in the Chaos Walking trilogy. An even bleaker and more
dystopian future than that of the Hunger Games trilogy.

Gregor the Overlander, by Suzanne Collins. June 1, 2011.

The first children's book by the author of the Hunger Games trilogy.
It's....okay. The writing is a bit flat and there are tone problems; she's
trying to make a contrast between the viewpoint of an 11-year-old boy and
the Underlanders, who live, yes, under the earth. It doesn't quite work.
The story wasn't that enthralling; I think there are continuity issues;
probably won't read (and definitely won't BUY) the balance of the
series.

Can You Forgive Her?, by Anthony Trollope. May 29,
2011.

The first of the Palliser novels, focussing on the parallel
stories of Alice Vavasor (the titular her), who is torn between two
potential husbands, one a scoundrel and one a near-saint; Lady Glencora
Palliser, who is torn between the man she loved and didn't marry and the
man she did marry; and Mrs. Greenow, torn, but not very hard, between
two men who might become her second husband. A good deal more fun than
the first time around some years ago.

Flesh & Blood, by John Harvey. April 29,
2011.

One of a series of mysteries about English cop (now retired) Frank
Elder. Flat writing, mediocre pacing, not going to read any
others.

The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James. April 29, 2011.

I started James's psychological ghost story last month, in advance of
seeing Britten's opera of the same name, then put it down, picked it up,
etc. It is a great tale in so many ways, from the dense yet slippery
style to the vividly drawn characters to the murky atmosphere. Are there
ghosts? Is the Governess imagining things? I have an opinion on that,
but you should read it and draw your own conclusions.

Comeback, by Richard Stark. March 11, 2011.

"Richard Stark" was Donald Westlake's pseudonym for his Parker books,
Parker being a cold, calculating, murderous heist guy. I've read several
in the last year or so, and picked up a half-dozen in the free box at a
party recently. I might have read enough of them.

The City and the City, by China Mieville. March 2,
2011.

A police procedural set within a pair of cities, Beszel and
Ul Quoma, that are physically co-located, but which have separate
governments, cultures, economies, and laws. The citizens must learn to
"unsee" each other and cannot interact unless they have traveled to the
other city - in which case they cannot interact with their co-citizens.
They are harshly and immediately punished for breaches of the accepted
behavioral protocols. Mieville handles this premise brilliantly and
surprisingly persuasively; the story is told from the viewpoint of a
policeman caught up in a bi-city investigation of the death of a young
archeologist.

I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett. February 23,
2011.

The fourth, and probably last, Tiffany Aching book, funny, touching,
wise, as usually, and a satisfying wrap-up that nonetheless leaves the
door open for more if he's willing (and able, sigh) to write more. Please
give the set to all the girls you know.

Native Tongue, by Carl Hiaasen. February 22, 2011.

Blue-tongued mango voles, a felon-turned-wanna-be-Disney, a washed-up
journalist, the requisite women with hearts of gold, and Skink. Hilarious
as usual.

Missing Joseph, by Elizabeth George. February 4,
2011.

Ho-hum. I'm told that the Inspector Lynley novels are variable, and
this one...well, I spotted something before the sleuths did, the setup
is schematic, and the ostensibly adult characters don't seem to actualy
learn much about how to talk to each other. Should I read more?

The Man with the Getaway Face, by "Richard Stark" (Donald
E. Westlake). January 16, 2011.

One of the early - 1963! Parker books - the amoral caper/heist/killer
guy.

Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett. Finished
1/09/2011.

Many charming characters and funny scenes, but a diffuse plot that
doesn't quite hang together.

I read 40 books in full and four more fractionally (from one-half
finished to 3/4 finished) in 2010.

Huge reading break from late-Feb to early April as I IGNORED Luc
Sante's Low Life, which I started in February while in NYC. Log jam
now broken; I'll finish Low Lifein a
whilesomeday.

There were several books I read only half or three-quarters of the way
through in 2010. They're listed among the books I finished, for some
reason - probably so I could keep chronological track of what I read.

The books I read in 2010, most of them completed:

Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins. December 24, 2010.

The third book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Chew on the plot and
character development. An extremely strong and tough-minded
series, not sure, given the violence and political complications, whether
they're really YA books.

Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins. December 20 or
21, 2010.

Book 2 of the the Hunger Games trilogy. What happens
afterward.

The Likeness, by Tana French. December 18, 2010.

A follow-up of sorts to In the Woods, though with a completely
different plot line and new characters. Again, not your usual police
procedural. You will want to kick the protagonist occasionally.

In the Woods, by Tana French. December 13,
2010

A gripping double mystery, very complex and sometimes
convoluted, about which i shall say nothing more.

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. December 13, 2010.

Beautifully written and almost indescribable, though I have to say
that I found the connections among the different parts a little more
tenuous than I'd been led to believe they were.

Double Whammy, by Carl Hiaasen. December 9,
2010.

I interrupted my reading of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas because
when in Florida, read about Florida. Double Whammy is
typical Hiaasen, populated by assorted rednecks, crazy people, cops,
losers, criminals, and freaks. In this case, several of those are bass
fishing pros, so the book also stars some fish. Hilarious, and, as usual,
people die in various horrifying, yet funny, ways.

Thud, by Terry Pratchett. Thanksgiving Day,
2010

Sir Terry at his best. The Watch, the dwarfs, the trolls, a giant
painting, Young Sam, Sibyl, and a lot of history.

Ruled Britannia, by Harry Turtledove. Nov. 2010.

Only read about 90 pages, got distracted by other things, had to
return it to the library, could not take it in to renew because I was
walking the dog. Will probably finish, though! Interesting alternate
history novel of a world in which Elizabethan England is ruled by
Spain.

Good Morning Midnight, by Reginald Hill.
Nov. something, 2010.

An excellent, complex Dalziel & Pascoe
novel, involving suicides, two of them, a decade apart, a stepmother, and
deep secrets.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne
Collins. October 24, 2010.

A remarkable coming of age novel set in
a horrifying dystopian future. I've seen some advertising copy or
blurbs/endorsements calling it an 'adventure story,' but no. First of
three books. I will need to get "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay" from the
library as they are hardcover only just now.

The Chosen, by Chaim Potok. October 21, 2010.

Chaim Potok's best-selling 1967 novel about two Jewish boys, one
Orthodox and the son of a great scholar, the other Hasidic and the son of
a rabbi, in line to inherit his father's rabbinate. I read this as a
teenager and remembered some of the key plot points, such as how the boys
meet. I had forgotten a great deal of detail, and I'm sure that I never
noticed that women are essentially invisible in the novel. Reuven's
mother: dead. Danny's mother: in poor health. Danny's sister: no name. And
Reb Saunders's way of raising Danny still enraged me. Also I think the
plot and characters are laid out rather schematically. I'm touched by the
relationship between Reuven and his father and by Dany and Reuven's
friendship.

Watchman, by Ian Rankin. October 19, 2010.

Rankin's second book ever, after the first Rebus novel, Knots &
Crosses, and not nearly as good as the bulk of the Rebus novels. On
the flat side for a complicated spy novel.

Grave Goods, by Arianna Franklin. October 16,
2010.

The third book in the series started with Mistress of the Art of the
Death. Slightly better, but not enough to get me reading the second or
any subsequent books.

Arms and the Women, by Reginald Hill. October 9,
2010.

An Ellie Pascoe mystery. Seriously, while Dalziel and Peter Pascoe are
in the book, Ellie is the major focus. The embedded tale of ancient
Greece is a really treat, too.

Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel.
September 25, 2010.

Mantel's Mann-Booker Prize-winning novel about Thomas Cromwell and the
English Reformation. Fantastic book, beautifully written, strongly
plotted, deeply reflecting how people thought and lived in the 16th
c. That's one of the best things about it: you can see the ways
that Cromwell is more modern than his contemporaries: he plans,
he analyzes businesses, he knows accounting. (That was a BIG DEAL
in 16th c. England.) It's about a tumultuous time in English
history, given Henry VIII's thirst for an heir and the creation
of the Church of England as a result, and it's fascinating to see
from such a personal standpoint. Highly recommended.

The Sorrows of Young Werther, by J.W. von Goethe.

Threw in the towel half-way through because Werther is such an
immature, self-centered, impulsive drip.

No, wait! After seeing the opera, I finished the book. Okay, I skipped
the long recitation from Ossian! But I had to see if it ended the same
way the opera ends (i.e. Charlotte really IS attracted to him...)

The Club of Queer Trades, by G.K. Chesterton, September 5,
2010.

Entertaining but incoherent, and ended so abruptly I wondered if I'd
managed to lose half the (electronic) book.

The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope, August 28,
2010.

Experiment: I read this very long book - 100 chapters - on
my smartphone, using the free Aldiko reader. I was astonished at how
successful this experiment was. I felt free to put down and pick up the
book, which I read over the course of about a month or five weeks. I read
a few other books between chapters of TWWLN. The advantages of
ebook format for it included not having to lug a thousand-page novel
around, being able to pull it out of my pocket any old time, and not
knowing exactly how far I had to go. I strongly disliked the Kindle the
one time I had my hands on it - I don't feel a strong need for a hard
keyboard when I'm reading, for example - but like reading electronically
on the phone just fine.

One of the great books by my favorite 19th c. English
writer, a superb novel of business life and social manners in the 1870s,
with plenty to say about class and anti-Semitism. Many points of view and
many fascinating characters, of which I must say the women are mostly
more interesting than the men. Mrs. Hurtle is a magnificent creature and
how I wish her the best. Georgiana Longestaff is a shallow and
self-centered fool (though perhaps in the end she does well since she
does the unexpected). There's one character we barely see about whom I'd
like to know more, Mr. Brehgert, since he is the only man to speak with a
woman as if she were an intelligent and independent being who can make
her own life decisions.

Also, Sir Damask Monogram is the best character name ever.

Gone for Good, by Harlan Coben, August 22, 2010.

A vanished brother, an unsolved murder, a psychopath, mistaken
identity, and a lot of withheld information.

Tell No One, by Harlan Coben, August 21, 2010.

This novel was the basis of the 2006 French film Ne le dis a
personne, which kept almost all of the plot and relocated the action
to France. IMDB tells me there is an English-language film called Tell
No One under development. You might as well get the French version,
which includes Kristen Scott Thomas.

In any event, it's a complex and reasonably well-put-together
mystery/thriller, though I think there are plot holes you could drive
through. This seems to be Coben's stock in trade, based on reading this
and another novel of his in close proximity.

Greenmantle, b John Buchan, August 21, 2010.

The second Richard Hannay book. A mysterious message, a trek across
Europe and into the Anatonlian peninsula, traveling companions of various
sorts, amazing coincidences, a vengeful German, an elusive
woman plotting to lead an Islamic revolt of sorts (!). And a lot of random
racism, too. This is the sequel to The Thirty-Nine Steps. I have
not decided whether I need to read (or can bear to read) Mr.
Standforth, the next Richard Hannay book

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum.
August 16, 2010.

You don't
need me to explain this to you, do you?

My first-ever reading of the great classic. It is extremely charming
and while the famous movie musical doesn't follow it exactly, it's pretty
close. I love the illustrations, too. I plan to read a couple more of the
series.

Bel Canto, by Ann Pratchett. Threw in the towel, August
14, 2010.

After 110 pages, I didn't give a damn about any of the characters, AND
I was annoyed by the operatic and Spanish errors. Putting it
another way, I found the book so annoying I would have CHEERED
if the terrorists had lined up all the other characters and shot
then one by one, just to get the damn thing over and done with.

The Whispering Statue, by "Carolyn Keene," August 7,
2010.

Yes, indeed: it's a Nancy Drew book. When I helped my mother clean up
her house in 2006, I packed and took to CA a fairly small number of books,
and my childhood "series" books were among them.

I have not read a Nancy Drew book since my childhood, though I have
read a number of articles about them. Did you know that in the originals,
which started to come out in the 1930s, Nancy was a more independent
person than in those that were published in the 1950s and 60s?

This particular book was published in 1937, and indeed, Nancy does what
she wants, even when it shows poor judgment or puts her in danger. It's an
entertaining read, and I can see why it made such an impression on me when
I was 8, but oh dear. The writing is stilted and stiff; the
plotting full of unlikely coincidences. A current adult mystery - or, for
that matter, the best adult mysteries from the 1920s and 30s - would be
better-constructed and written. (Yes, I know that most don't have the
quality of the best of Sayers.) Still, it's easy to see why these books
are so appealing and have lasted so long as a series.

Among the other books I brought back from NJ were some that my father
had read as a child in the 1920s, by Jeffrey Farnol. They are not the
copies he read, which probably came from the public library; they're
copies he bought in the 1960s and 70s at used bookstores and at garage
sales. This puzzled me at the time, but now I understand the impulse to
re-read beloved books from childhood; for the sheer pleasure and to see
how they stand up to one's memory of them.

The Fifth Elephant, by Terry Pratchett, August 7, 2010.

Sam Vimes is appointed ambassador to Uberwald on the occasion of the
coronation of a new Low King of the dwarfs. Various disasters and
hilarity ensue; I'd consider this one of the best of the Discworld
novels.

Lost in a Good Book, by Jasper Fforde, July 29, 2010.

The second Thursday Next book, continuing the adventures of the
LiteraTech operative in a most unusual alternate universe, where there's
a Shakespeare voting bloc, the Crimean War continued until 1985, time
travel is real, and dodos (plock plock) have been genetically engineered
back into existence. An excellent read, often funny, with a
couple of marvelous virtuoso turns of writing.

The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu, by Sax Rohmer, July 6,
2010.

I made it half-way through. I read a bunch of the Fu-Manchu
books as a teenager; I'm almost certain I picked up this hardcover first
American edition for more or less nothing in a thrift store in Waltham,
MA when I was in college. It goes nicely with The Thirty-Nine
Steps in terms of the threat-from-the-other. In the Buchan, it's Jews
and Germans, in Rohmer's books, Asians. Yes, there's lots and lots
about the Yellow Peril and the threat from the east, a truly appalling
level of racism, with secret agent Nayland Smith explictly standing for
the whole white race, especially the British white race.

Fu-Manchu is both brilliant, the greatest living genius, and a
monster. And also an opium addict. I couldn't take more than half of it,
with the endless running around to no purpose, the beautiful young woman
who instantly falls in love with Dr. Petrie, the murderous fiends,
etc.

The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan, July
4, 2010.

No, I did not read this in one day, though it is so short I almost
could have. Read on a Google Nexus One using the Aldiko book reader.

If you've seen the famous Hitchcock film, you'll barely recognize the
book. Parts of it, yes, but Hitch's screenwriter invented whole swaths of
the script and changed its time period. There's plenty of casual classism
(okay, that nearly goes without saying) and casual anti-semitism as well.
Scrambling over the highlands, yes; beautiful female sidekick,
no.

The Price of Admiralty, by John Keegan, July 3,
2010.

Keegan's overview of four great naval battles: Trafalgar, Jutland,
Midway, and Atlantic.

Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchett, June 1, 2010.

The third and possibly the last of the Tiffany Aching books; a fine
coming-of-age novel, as the whole trilogy is, and a great look at the
education of a witch.

Night of the Jaguar, by Michael A. Gruber, May 22, 2010.

The third and possibly last Jimmy Paz novel, but the door is certainly
open for more. Especially memorable for its attempts to represent how a
person from an Amazonian culture would see the modern world and for the
internal transformations of two of the other characters.

The Moon and the Sun, by Vonda McIntyre, May 7, 2010.

I've been reading this for a while - was about half-way through when
the Stieg Larsson books landed in my household. A really superb historical
fantasy novel set at the court of Louis XIV, the Sun King. One of Vonda's
best, I would say.

The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson, May
2, 2010.

Since he died shortly after turning in the mss. of the three Lisbeth
Salander mystery/thrillers, no more. I caught the first big implausibility
and likely consequences long before the consequences played out. There's a
lot I don't believe for a second, but perhaps the biggest implausibility
is the genius hackers using INTERNET EXPLORER, the most bug-ridden, slow,
and overloaded of web browsers. For crying out loud, she's Swedish - she'd
be using Opera.

The Girl who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson, April 26,
2010.

Utterly preposterous and again full of giant holes in the plot. Fun,
though!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson, April 20,
2010.

Yes, I'm reading the Swedish mystery series, like everyone else I know.
I can't tell if the clumsy writing is a result of a clumsy translation;
the plot has holes you could drive a truck or three through. And yet,
compelling!

Making Money, by Terry Pratchett. April 3, 2010.

Moist von Lipwig, in charge of a bank? Yes, indeed.

The Private Patient, by P.D. James. February 10? 12?,
2010.

At this point, I find Adam Dalgliesh's sidekicks at least as
interesting as he is, and I still don't quite get the relationship between
him and his 20-years-younger fiancee. This novel has a fairly convolunted
plot, and you truly don't get enough information to figure out who done it
until mighty late in the book. Even then, I'm not sure I could tell you
why done all of it.

Another elegantly-written and sometimes quite funny novel by Hare, this
time set somewhere on the south coast of England. While it revolves around
the murder of a fine violinist, it also involves the nuances of organizing
and rehearsing an amateur orchestra by a conductor who is clearly better
than they deserve. However, I have to say: the big break revolves around
what I would consider a complete impossibility, given the several amateur
orchestras and bands I've played it.

Tenant for Death, by Cyril Hare. February 1, 2010.

An elegantly written and reasonably well-plotted English mystery from
the 1930s, set in the wake of the financial collapse of a group of related
companies all owned and run by the same swindler.

A Hat Full of Sky, by Terry Pratchett. January 28, 2010.

No, it did not take me nearly three weeks to read this book. I spent a
week or so hauling around The Orphan's Tales without touching it,
and another week hauling around and sometimes reading part of The Great
Influenza. Now you know why I don't read nearly as many books as I'd
like. I should go back to leaving my laptop at work during the week.

That said, this is another Tiffany Aching/Nac Mac Feegle book, an
excellent ongoing coming-of-age tale. Great stuff, but you knew I'd say
that.

My Life in France, by Julia Child with Alex
Prud'homme. January 8, 2010.

The great author, cook, and TV personality, an
eccentric of the first water, tells her life story, sort of. It's less a
memoir than a chronological series of charming anecdotes, as told to her
nephew Alex. It's always entertaining, sometimes touching, and often
hilarious. Running through the book is the ten-year tale of the writing
and publishing of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a suprising
cliff-hanger. (I cried when they finally sold it!) The book also contains
a great love story, that of the late-blooming Julia and her beloved
Paul.

The Wee Free Men,by Sir Terry Pratchett. January 5,
2010.

The first Tiffany Aching novel. She's nine years old and has
THE POWER, as well as having had a remarkable grandmother. Also contains a
lot about and co-stars the Nac Mac Feegle, one of Sir Terry's great, great
creations.

I read 26 books in 2009, up from 23 in 2008, but still behind the 33 in
2007 and far under what i read before the internet took over my life. I
spent too much shuttle time on line answering email or blogging, I think.
I read a disproportionate number of books while home sick or on vacation
(two-plus during a short stay in Santa Fe, for example). I still wish I
were reading more nonfiction.

Books I finished:

Bones and Silence, by Reginald Hill. December 26, 2009.

A fairly brutal but very good Dalziel & Pascoe novel, with many
strongly drawn characters and a good subplot.

The Naming of the Dead, by Ian Rankin. December ?, 2009.

Putting this here belated because I think I read it in 2009 - might
have been the first few days of 2010, however. Apparently the next-to-last
Rebus novel, involving finance and government and Siobhan's
parents.

Stardust, by Neil Gaiman. December 4, 2009.

I liked
the movie, so I got the book, which typically turns out to be better
fleshed out and more interesting, and you can easily see what got grated
on for the movie. Tristran's father in the book is happily married, so
there's no happy reunion with Lady Una. And the whole
De-Niro-the-gay-pirate bit was invented for the movie. Anyway, charming
and very beautifully written. I need to read more Gaiman.

In the Year of Jubilee, by
George Gissing, November 25, 2009.

George Gissing, a British
novelist and journalist of the late 19th c., is probably best know
today for the novel New Grub Street. I picked up In the Year of
Jubilee in a Dover edition several years ago and finally read it this
year, inspired by two friends who'd read Gissing within the last 18
months. It is both fascinating and frustrating because it
is so much of its time. Set in 1889, the year of Queen Victoria's jubilee,
it tells the story of Nancy Lord, her ne're to do well brother Horace,
their family tributions, and Nancy's disastrous involvement with the
immature Lionel Tarrant, which nearly ruins her, though in the end it
appears to more or less be working out reasonably well. But you can easily
see the ways that women's lives were limited by circumstances and
especially by the circumstance of their being women.

The Forgery of Venus, by Michael A. Gruber, November 20,
2009.

An art-historical thriller of sorts, one about which it's hard to say
much without major spoilage, so I'll just say that it's lots of fun and
will send you diving for the art history books.

Mistress of the Art of Death, by Arianna Franklin. November
something, 2009.

This book is wild with anachronisms; the characters act much too much
like modern people; I do not for a minute believe that a Spanish Jew of
the 12th century spoke Yiddish (he would speak Ladino); for that same
minute, I do not believe that the famed medical school at Salerno followed
19th and 20th c. practice to determine how bodies decayed after death; and
I do not believe for a second that they trained women as doctors. (It has
been brought to my attention that perhaps Salerno did train women as
doctors. That would be interesting to read about.)

Enjoyable, not
in the least believable.

An Advancement of Learning, by Reginald Hill. November 10,
2009.

The second of Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe books. Compact, swift, and
well done.

End in Tears, by Ruth Rendell. November 8, 2009

I'm
home with a cold, that's why the three books finished in three days.
Today's was one of Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford novels. As usual, she
is both great and maddening, for these reasons: 1. The felis-ex-machina
without which.... 2. The young cop who is a pure caricature of a feminist
- it's far from the first time Rendell has pulled this crap 3. The
incredibly convoluted plot in which a lot of trouble could have been
avoided if, say, some of the characters had bothered to speak honestly to
each other 4. In a book with two English characters of African ancestry
and one English character of Indian ancestry, she still manages to
have a "magic Negro" (ask me if you're not familiar with the term) 5. The
sheerly idiotic and immature behavior of yet another character from one of
the subplots. Is that enough reasons?

The first
Parker book I've read, a superb and tightly-plotted and -writen heist
novel.

Monstrous Regiment, by Terry Pratchett, November 6, 2009.

A girl named Polly runs away to join the army and find her brother.
She finds a lot more, and finds OUT a lot more. Typical Pterry.

Rats, by Robert Sullivan. October 19, 2009.

Rats was a surprise best
seller a few years back. Considering the subject matter, it is surprisingly charming. Still, given that the
author spends quite a lot of time in an alley observing the subject rodent, perhaps this is not for the
squeamish.

White Jazz, by James Ellroy. Octboer 3, 2009.

One of Ellroy's L.A.
Quartet books; if you've read L.A. Confidential, you'll know some of the
characters. A good read of sorts, but the stench of corruption and horror is so great
that I think I need to go shower now.

Flat, flat, flat. Flat writing, poor plotting, has to invent a work by
Aaron Copland, then claims there would be only one percussionist. I don't
think so. Must be the only writer to set a book at Oxford and pay
no attention to the town and university's age and beauty.

Immoral Certainty, by Robert K. Tanenbaum, Sept.
13, 2009.

The gap isn't as long as it seems; I read most of two books that I need
to finish since The Moonstone. I picked up the Tanenbaum book
because the excellent Michael A. Gruber ghosted this and several other of
Tanenbaum's books. However, this one is not nearly as good as the books
Gruber has been writing under his own name. The writing isn't as good and
the characters and plotting....I can't begin to tell you how many times I
wanted to kick one of the main characters

The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins. August 3,
2009.

A famous 19th century crime/detective novel, now more entertaining as a
period piece and for the charming characters than for the plotting. You could
say I don't buy a word of the explanation of who and how done it. Still, I'm
glad to have read it, some thirty years after I first heard of The
Moonstone.

Valley of Bones, by Michael Gruber. July 26, 2009.

The second in Gruber's stylish Jimmy Paz series. Terrific writing and
plotting. If I'd been able to buy a copy of the third book today, I would have
done so.

For the Sake of Elena, by Elizabeth George. July 24,
2009.

Horrible people doing horrible things to each other, often behaving
stupidly in the process, the exceptions mostly being in Lynley's immediate
circle. Please stop torturing Havers immediately, and if this series doesn't
improve in the next book or two, I am done with it.

The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden, by Catherynne
Valente, June 18, 2009.

If you're following along, you'll have
noticed the weeks-long gap since my last-completed book. During that time,
I started a Pratchett book, then lost it at work. I spent more time
working on Remix, which is hugely annoying. I am also more
than 100 pages into a Java textbook and have been spending one evening a
week in class and more time doing homework.

I started In the Night Garden months ago, and then got
distracted, perhaps by my first run at Remix. In any event, I
finally picked it up and dashed through the last 150 pages. All I can say
is "Wow." It is an amazing, intricate, wonderfully-written fantasy. I
can't wait to read the next book.

Tropic of Night, by Michael A. Gruber, May 6, 2009.

A
superbly written thriller/police procedural/fantasy novel - really - that
raises all sorts of questions related to the recent cultural appropriation
and racism debates on LiveJournal. Judging by the photos, the author, with
whom I have a slight online acquaintance, is European-American, but the
central subjects include African American identity, Africa, santeria,
anthropology, anthropology's role, and what, exactly, it is possible to
learn by trying to become part of a culture not one's own. I am troubled
by the way some of the character development goes, no, wait, by quite a
lot of the character development. I also liked the book a whole
lot and plan to read the next two Jimmy Paz novels.

Blindsight, by Peter Watts. April 5, 2009.

Recommended by someone on the Potlatch Good Reads panel. An odd cast
of characters set off in a spaceshit to save the world. Well, not
exactly, but sort of. The cast includes an autistic man who is a genius
at synthesis, a military commander of notable nerve, the Gang of Four,
and a vampire. A creepy and sometimes scary book, worth reading.

Matter, by Iain M. Banks. March 26?, 2009.

The latest Culture novel. It took a long, long time getting off the
ground and ends, well, you know Banks.

Remix, by Larry Lessig.

A placeholder; I've been
intermittently reading this since mid-February. So far, I'm somewhat
disgruntled.

Carpe Jugulum, by Terry Pratchett.
February
14, 2009.

Between finishing The Rest is Noise and starting
Carpe Jugulum, I also read about 50 pages of Joseph Horowitz's
controversial Understanding Toscanini, which I will get back to in
a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, the usual assortment of wisdom, wit, and
belly laughs from Sir Terry. As usual, do not mess with Granny
Weatherwax.

The Rest is Noise, by Alex Ross. January 30,
2009.

I started Noise last April at Wilbur Hot Springs, read another
chunk in Santa Fe in July, then set it aside during the Great Reading
Drought of 2008. Finally decided I had better finish it. So you could say
I read 300-odd pages last year and 200-odd this year, making two
decent-sized books. I liked what I read, am not happy at all about some
important omissions and feel like a statement up front that this is an
AMERICAN view of 20th c. music would have been a good idea. Maybe it's
there and I have forgotten - I will check before I write my blog posting
about the book. But if a Brit or German had written the book, there would
be a lot less Copland and Bernstein, and Will Marion Cook wouldn't have
gotten a mention. I have a lot to say in addition to that and won't try to
put much of it here.

The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. January 21,
2009.

Giant, fast-moving, often scary novel with a large debt, both plot and
structural, to Stoker's Dracula. I liked it quite a bit, though I
think it stumbles a bit toward the end, perhaps because it's simply
difficult to close out such a big book. The multipart denoument seemed
both too drawn out and too short; at the end I wanted a bit more. However,
a damn good read.

Well-written and reasonably entertaining, though a bit too convoluted
in trying to set out a great deal about the mystery at hand, problems
within Lynley's family, and telling us about Simon and Deborah's
prehistory.

Okay, if you've read the first three Lynley novels, details about how
Simon and Deborah FINALLY get together aren't exactly spoilers. But MY GOD
how stupidly these people behave. He doesn't communicate with her for
THREE YEARS even though they are quite clearly the best of friends when
she leaves England for three years. He BROODS and BROODS about how he
can't possibly be acceptable to her because of his injury and limp. What?
He's presented as sensitive, brilliant, kind, well-read, and good-looking,
and a limp and a brace are supposed to be disqualifying?

Other
stupidity: EVEN I could figure out that the camera bag disappeared because
of the film! And what is with the concealed evidence and the drive across
London that takes an hour when Tommy and Simon know Sasha is dead or
dying? Sheesh!

Growing Up Weightless, by John M. Ford. January
2, 2009.

This is the second time I've read Growing Up
Weightless, a coming-of-age/YA novel by the late John M. Ford. I like
the book's characters, details, and plot, but I feel like it has one
serious problem: it doesn't have what I would call a real plot climax,
and so it feels structurally weak. This might be because there are
multiple plot threads, any of which could have been further worked out,
or because the denoument happens very, very fast, in a small number of
pages both absolutely and relative to amount of plot to be unwound. It is
typical of Ford that he alludes to a lot without spelling it out, which
is, in this book, a serious problem with respect to one of the ongoing
plot threads. I truoly wish the book had been longer, both for
better working out of the plots and for more depth of detail in some
areas: how the theater works, the mechanical systems of Luna, what
happens with all of the kids, etc. Okay, the latter probably isn't
necessary.

I'll also say that the musical economy of Luna is
different from anything I am familiar with. There is no way the
composer could finish his work and have it performed two weeks later
in the current world musical economy. The implication of what happens in
the book is that the composer lives in a world like Haydn's, where
the music was performed by Esterhazys' private orchestra as soon as
it was written, without a long rehearsal period. I am not convinced
that a complex modern work, and that's what the symphony to be
performed is, could be rehearsed and performed under those
conditions.

Well, I had a crappy book-reading year in 2008. I blame it on blogging a lot more than in
previous years, reading other blogs too much, and the election. I
also got badly bogged down, to the point of blockage, by The Rest is
Noise. I read part of it in April, part of it in July, and remain
stuck half-way through. Read the index to see why, she said cryptically;
I still haven't figured out what to say about it on my blog.

My goal for 2009 is just to read a lot more, of whatever type of
book.

The Medical Science of House, M.D. December 30, 2008.

A survey of how several facets of the popular TV show work in the real
world.

The Music of Elliott Carter, by David Schiff.

Grazing only. I read the excellent introductory chapter and parts of
the string quartet and piano music chapters. I have the second edition
(Thanks, Patrick!), which was published ten years ago. In the decade
since, Carter, still composing at the age of 100, has written another 20
or 30 works. Hold off a while on that third edition, Mr.
Schiff.

A Sea of Troubles, by Donna Leon.
Mid-November, 2008.

I read this because it was in the house and easy, even after having
sworn off Donna Leon. I had been told the later books in the Guido
Brunetti series were better the earlier - not true at all. Never
again!

The enormous gap since I last finished a book has two
reasons: the election, which killed my concentration for reading anything
but political news, and the length and complexity of a couple of other
books I was reading in the late summer/early fall. I seem able to read
again now that the election is, thank goodness, OVER.

The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fford. Sept. 11, 2008.

A mystery/fantasy novel set in an England where it's 1985 - and the
Crimean War is still going on. Where there are internal combustion
engines, but no jets, and air travel is by propeller-powered airship.
Where dodos are common pets. Where crimes against literature are quite
common.

Soul Music, by Terry Pratchett. August 20, 2008.

How music got rocks in it; also, Death's sensible granddaughter saves
the day - again.

The Locked Room, by Paul Auster. August 5, 2008.

The third of the New York Trilogy. This book appears more humane than
the first two, or at least the protagonist seems less trapped in
convention and more spontaneous than those of the first two. Still, there
are many unanswered questions; the atmosphere of the book is disturbing
and disquieting, as in the first two books. Not fun to read, not
challenging; the books read more like intellectual experiments than
anything else. Just how far can I stretch this genre before it
breaks?

Ghosts, by Paul Auster. August 2, 2008.

Book Two of the New York Trilogy, just as creepy as the first. A man
(called Blue) is hired by White to watch Black, and destroys his life by
doing so.

City of Glass, by Paul Auster. July 31, 2008.

I read City of Glass in the 80s, but never got the rest of the
New York Trilogy; gave away my copy of City of Glass, then picked
up a copy of the trilogy that a friend was giving away. MY, what a creepy
book. I suspect I both liked and understood it better this time than 20
years ago, and will be starting the second book in the trilogy later
today.

The Book of Air and Shadows, by Michael A. Gruber. July 24
(?), 2008.

A complicated and very entertaining literary thriller, with a great
cast of characters.

The Enchantress of Venice, by Salman Rushdie. July 9,
2008.

Salman Rushdie came to Google for a talk a few weeks ago. I had never
heard him speak before. He turned out to be smart, funny, and very
charming. The talk was mobbed, and he got an enormous hand before and
especially after. You can watch his talk on YouTube.The
Enchantress of Venice is about a number of things: power, and fate,
and magic, and love. It's a lovely book, and as he says in his talk, he
didn't make up some of the seemingly wildest things he wrote.

Equal Rites, by Terry Pratchett. June, 2008.

A female wizard? Are you kidding?

The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon. No
date because I read a bunch of The Rest is Noise after
Bloody Bones and can't recall when I read the Chabon.

A strange and mostly wonderful book, about a world in which the Jews
who survived WWII are given a limited-term home in Sitka, Alaska. I liked
it a great deal, especially the wry and tortured Mayer Landesman, cop. I
suspect it's funnier than I found it; dry wit often goes over my head in
print.

The Rasp, by Philip MacDonald. May? June? 2008.

The first of MacDonald's Anthony Gethryn novels. I read several of
these in the 1980s, and recently used MacDonald for the Well's Mystery
Logout Quote game. My copy of The Rasp looked as if it had never
been read, and I didn't remember a thing about it - strange, but possibly
true. In any event, one of the worst mysteries I've ever read, with
conclusions lept to and vast amounts of unmotivated and poorly-explained
behavior. I'm now afraid to reread Warrant for X or The
List of Adrian Messenger, which I remember as being pretty
good.

Bloody Bones, by Laurell Hamilton. April 12, 2008.

Much better than the previous two Anita Blake novels, largely because
it's heavy on the mystery, better on the human/monster relationship
issues, and light on gratuitous violence

Towel thrown in on Empire of Ivory, by Naomi Novik, the
fourth Temeraire book.

No problem with the improbability of talking dragons and Nelson's
survival past Trafalgar, but the insanity of the decision-making in this
book and the lost-kingdom aspect in the center put me over the edge. I
also looked ahead to the ending - WTF? I don't buy it and am done, done,
done with the series

Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett. March 25, 2008.

Hmm, two Pratchetts in a row and separated by weeks. That's largely
because of the amount of time I have recently put into researching and
writing a forthcoming article, the longest I've written as a music
writer. In any event, Death's sensible granddaughter saves the
world.

One of the great New Yorker writer's collections of food essays.
Hilarious, and you will drool straight through.

The Charterhouse of Parma, by Stendahl, translated by
Richard Howard. February 20, 2008.

I read a
review in the Times a few years ago when this translation of
the Stendahl classic was published. On a visit to my mother, probably in
2001 after she broke her wrist, a bookstore across the river in Hackensack
was going out of business. I picked up a few books, Charterhouse
among them.

Now, I was not expecting to like Charterhouse.
It's a long, early 19th century classic by a writer with a one-name
pseudonym. I was expecting serious, heavy, unpleasant.

Boy, was I
surprised. The tone throughout is light, ironic, very modern; the action
is paced swiftly; the book is full of charm. world. At its heart, it's a
novel of politics and court intrigue. It tells the story of the young
nobleman Fabrizio del Dongo, as foolish a dolt as has ever been found on
the pages of a novel: you will often want to smack him. Possibly more
importantly, it's about his aunt, the marvelous Duchess of Sanseverina,
and her lover Count Mosca della Rovere, who try to get Fabrizio
established in the world.

Musicophilia, by Oliver Sacks. January 20,
2008.

Subtitled "Tales of Music and the Brain," that's exactly what this
superb book by Dr. Sacks is about. Music, neurology, brain damage,
unusual conditions, all fascinating.

The Edge of Chaos, by Pamela McCorduck. January 17,
2008.

The third novel by an author best known for her writing about
artificial intelligence and other aspects of computer science. Set in
Santa Fe, partly at the Santa Fe Institute, about love, death, and other
aspects of life. A really good book, interestingly plotted (the
characters' lives unfold very slowly) and vividly written. I wish the
typeface were more readable - the book designer made a very bad
choice.

The second of the Nurse Matilda books, with a plot that can be summarized
in one sentence: The Brown children go to London, mayhem ensues, Nurse
Matilda puts things right. Beyond that, really, it is rather annoying.
Too much picking on both thin and far people and people with accents. I
wish there were either a plot or some characterization beyond the very
broad characterization of Aunt Adelaide, Evangeline, and Nurse
Matilda.

Well-Schooled in Murder, by Elizabeth George. December 25?
24?, 2007

The third of the Inspector Lynley novels. The plot is about two layers of
complexity past plausibility, plus, I thought one character's self-torture
implausible based on my knowledge of one of the other characters. I was
vastly relieved when....but completing many of these thoughts would
require a big spoiler warning. I should note that since I've been sick for
two days, this was fine sick-bed reading anyway.

Black Powder War, by Naomi Novik. December 23, 2007

Longer than the previous two novels and less effective than either, with
an overly long plot with insufficient motivation for the primary activity
and a couple of all-too-obvious long-range setups,
plus not quite enough elucidation of an intruiging character. Perhaps
he'll appear in the fourth book, perhaps not. Moreover, those dragons can
be so annoying! Just imagine a talking cat the size of a first-rate man
o' war who
can fly and speak intelligently in multiple languages.

Witches
Abroad, by Terry Pratchett. December 7, 2007.

Don't mess with Granny Weatherwax or Greebo.

Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud. November 29,
2007.

I've wanted to read this book since it was first published in, get this,
1993. McCloud gave a captivating talk at Google a few months ago about his
new book, Making Comics, and I decided I'd better start at
the beginning.

Why ever did I wait so long? Understanding Comics is sheer genius,
as he wittily deconstructs and reconstructs comics through the ages. Not
only that, the book is in the form of a comic. Brilliant; I'll be
ordering his subsequent two books ASAP.

For some reason,
his talk isn't up on the Authors@Google
web page. Hmmm.

Battle Cry of Freedom, by James McPherson. November 27,
2007.

You see the huge gap between finishing The Civil War and finishing
His Majesty's Dragon? Blame Battle Cry of Freedom, a
magnificent one-volume history of the American Civil War. It's about 900
pages long, and I have finally wrapped it.

Battle Cry won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, and it's easy to see
why. McPherson starts in the 1840s, and he's 250 pages in before the
first shots are fired at Fort Sumter. He covers the causes of the Civil
War, the social and political conditions of the period, the battles, the
generals, the politicians, the enormous changes wrought by the war. He is
deeply eloquent and deeply learned. A
great accomplishment and worth every minute I spent reading it.

Throne of Jade, by Naomi Novick. November 23,
2007.

More of the Napoleonic wars plus dragons. There are two anachronisms: use
of the words "mindset" and "sideburns." I wonder about the design of the
dragon transport and may consult a naval architect of my acquaintance.
Otherwise, lots of fun, and boy, those dragons are very high
maintenance.

Basket Case, by Carl Hiaasen. November 15, 2007.

The usual mix of screwups, heavies, and entertaining improbabilities, all
very, very funny.

His Majesty's Dragon, by Naomi Novick. November 10,
2007.

The Napoleonic Wars plus dragons, from the English viewpoint. What more
could you want?

The Civil War, by Bruce Catton. September 19,
2007.

I'm reviewing San Francisco Opera's production of Philip Glass's new
opera, Appomattox, in a couple of weeks. I have not studied
American history since high school, and though I had better review the
history of the American Civil War before the opera opens.

The
Civil War is a superb short history of the conflict. With about 300
pages of narrative and 100 pages of back matter, it's very much the
20,000 foot view. Still, it takes in the causes of the war, at least from
the perspective of 1960, and its course. Catton vividly conveys the
conditions of the war and the characters of the men who led it.

Still, we've learned a lot since 1960. I have a more recent, longer
history of the era on board; I may even finish it by October 5.

Death in a Strange Country, by Donna Leone. September 13,
2007.

I admit that I've been having some problems finishing a book since I
finished Cryptonomicon. I started and have not finished
Colors, by Victoria Finlay, and The Ladies of Grace Adieu,
by Susanna Clarke. I will finish both of them, but wanted to get through
something, and a couple of weeks ago we were give a bagful of the
Commissario Brunetti novels. So I read the second, even though I was
annoyed by the first and had decided not to read any more.

The second
is also annoying! There are a couple of implausible plot points that I
won't discuss, as they are spoilers; she tips her hand badly on a couple
of plot points; the pacing is not so good; there's a huge tangle set up
and not undone by the end. I think she is setting up future plots, most
likely; giving Guido a nemesis of some kind. I thought of John Rebus and
his nemesis Cafferty -- if you want atmosphere and great writing, try the
Rebus novels rather than these, unless they get a lot better. Also,
perhaps she took that Chekovian dictum a little too seriously.

Crytonomicon, by Neal Stephenson. August
22, 2007.

It took more than a month for me to finish this 900-page brick, although
it would come in a bit under that if I hadn't left the book at work
twice during that period, once for a whole weekend. However, let
me say that it is thoroughly engrossing; long, complicated, fabulously
written; full of engaging characters; brilliantly plotted. I loved every
minute and every word and, really, I was sorry when it was over.

Given that it's Stephenson, you might expect fantasy or science
fiction, but Cryptonomicon is a generation-spanning historical
thriller. You don't need to know about the history of cryptography, or to
have read an Alan Turning biography, but after you're done, you may want
to.

Death at La Fenice, by Donna Leone. August 6,
2007.

You'd think a book combining Italy and music - opera, no less - would be
especially appealing, but music and opera are more background than
anything else. The writing is dryish and the characters and plotting only
intermittently interesting, alas. I figured out who done it, as
well.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling. July
24, 2007.

NO SPOILERS HERE. The seventh and last tale in the
saga of Harry
Potter, Boy Wizard. A decent read, with major
caveats. It is overly long, rambly, and confusing, and shows up some
substantial flaws in Rowling's decisions about how to write the series.
She apparently decided early on that Harry's viewpoint would be the series
viewpoint 90% of the time, which severely limits her ability to provide
background information to the reader, and keeps us stuck mostly inside
Harry's not-so-interesgting head for the eight thousand or so pages of the
saga. I hate her use of ellipses, and you'd think she could afford the
services of an editor with all the money she has hauled in from these
books.

Payment in
Blood, by Elizabeth George. July 16 or
17, 2007.

The second Inspector Linley novel, perfect vacation
reading.

Guards! Guards!, by Terry Pratchett. July 11,
2007.

Samuel Vimes, seeekrit plots, a dragon or two, the
magnificent Lady Ramkin, and Carrot. Definitely one of the funniest I've read in this
generally very funny series.

United States of Arugula, by David Kamp. July 9,
2007.

An entertaining, gossipy, decidedly non-scholarly look at food and eating
in the United States since the 1930s, and at various chefs and authors
who helped change things for the better, from James Beard, Julia Child,
and Craig Claiborne to the present day.

Uncle Tungsten, by Olivers Sacks. June, 2007.

The remarkable and charming memoir of Oliver Sacks,
neurologist and author. It's subtitled "Memories of a Chemical Boyhood"
for good reasons: his inventor uncles introduced him early to the wonders
of chemisty, and over the course of the book, you follow young Oliver as
he reads the original works of great chemists and physicists from the 17th
to 20th centuries, recreating their experiments - and explosions - along
the way. You also meet Sacks's fascinating extended family and learn a lot
about middle-class British Jews between the wars, not to mention the
periodic table of the elements. Trust me: by the end of the book, you'll
want to visit a chemical supply store so you can conduct your own
experiments.

Sourcery, by Terry Pratchett.
5/24/07.

I know it looks as though I'm only reading Pratchett, but between
Mort and Sourcery, I started reading a (lovely) memoir, then
got very sick and couldn't read anything for a few days. When I could read
again, I wanted something light to read. Anyway, typical Pratchett;
good, with some great moments, but not the best. I would have wanted MORE
of the Luggage.

Mort, by Terry Pratchett. 5/11/07.

DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY. MERRIMENT ENSUES.

Performing Music in the Age of Recording, by Robert Philip.
5/4/07.

I heard Robert Philip speak at the British Library in 2004, right around
when this book was published. It is a brilliant and important book,
discussing what we hear in old recordings, how performing style has
changed through a century of recorded sound, and, most importantly, what
authority means and where it lies, and whether those things can be
determined from recordings. A fascinating and erudite book, required
reading.

Better, by Atul Gawande. 5/2/07.

Dr. Gawande gave a talk at Google yesterday, and I scored a copy of the
book there, which he was kind enough to inscribe to me and my partner, who
had heard him speak the day before at UCSF. I've been a fan of his New
Yorker articles for years; he is a graceful writer with an individual
voice, and extremely thoughtful. Some or all of the essays in this book
are reprints of New Yorker articles, with connective tissue and updates
added for publication as a book. Some I had not not read, and one (the
cystic fibrosis article) I have thought of often and re-read on line at
least once. I enjoyed the book very much, and I also plan to write him a
letter. I didn't get to ask him the question I'd finally settled on, plus,
I think he never quite articulates a theme that is quite obvious to me. A
good read, interesting, eye-opening, although I have to confess that I
think his concluding chapter is a little lame compared to the strength of
each individual essay. Highly recommended.

Maskerade, by Terry Practchett. 4/29/07.

Pratchett
does
opera, hilariously. Read it!

Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain.
4/17/07.

A big
seller in 2000, the year it was published, a tell-all about life in a
restaurant kitchen by the often-profane, often-stoned/drunk chef.
Sometimes fun, sometimes tiresome, full of colorful characters.

The Great Deliverance, by Elizabeth George.
4/09/07.

The
first Inspector Lynley novel. A terrific read, excellent characterizations
and atmosphere, entertaining cast of characters.

Abandoned, probably temporarily, Salt, by
Mark
Kurlansky, because it feels like it has devolved into a list of wars in
which salt has played a part. Perhaps I just need to skip a chapter or
two.

Abandoned, perhaps only temporarily, A Fan's Notes, by
Frederick Exley, because
I've read 85 pages and I'm not sure if I can stand to spend another 300 in
his company.

Nurse Matilda, by Christianna Brand. 3/05/07.

The book on which
the Emma Thompson film Nanny McPhee is based. I found it charming
and slight. I have no idea why the title was changed for the film.
[December, 2007. Probably because American children would misunderstand
"nurse" in this context.] The
character, played by Thompson, is very much the same in the film and the
book, and so is the rich aunt. The children, who seem to number 18 or 20
in the book, are less sharply drawn than the 8 or 9 who appear in the
film, unsurprisingly. They are more of a pack or litter than they are
individuals. Also unsurprisingly, in the book Mrs. Brown is alive and
well. She's presumably eliminated in the film to create a romantic plot
and something resembling dramatic tension, of which there is almost none
in the book.

"The Illusionist," by Steven Mullhauser. 3/4/07.

The
short story on which the Edward Norton/Paul Giamatti film is based. I've
wanted to read Millhauser since the late 1980s some time - I remember a
pink index card with a bunch of names on it, including his. I never did
get around to him, or so I thought. A couple of weeks ago, I found that a
horror and fantasy collection I purchased and read years ago contained a
reprint of "The Illusionist," so I must have read it at the time. As it
happens, the story has very little to do with the film. It is strictly
about Eisenheim and his career and illusions. No conspiracies, no noble
lover, etc. It's a very good story, though, so it could be said that I
still want to read Millhauser.

The Lunatic Cafe, by Laurell Hamilton. 3/3/07.

The fourth
in a series of books about Anita Blake, vampire slayer. Well, she also
raises the dead. This series is sort of like popcorn. I keep reading,
even though the character is pretty annoying at times. She seems both much
younger and much older than 24, the age she has reached in this book.
"I've lived alone for a long time" - what?? At 24 I'd been out of college
for 2 years and it would be a bunch more years before my first period of
living alone. A friend commented that she'd stopped reading the series
because the rules about the various nonhuman sentient beings in the books
keep changing. That isn't exactly how I read them: I think Blake is in the
process of discovering what the rules are. At this point, I guess I am
curious about how she is going to work out her increasingly complicated
and entertaining love life.

Stars in My Pocket, Like Grains of Sand, by Samuel R.
Delany. 2/22/07.

My third or, more likely, fourth time through
one of the
best science fiction novels of the 1980s. It is dense and
sometimes a bit incomprehensible, but well worth it.

The Red Box,
by Rex Stout. 2/15/07.

The fourth Nero Wolfe mystery,
published in 1937.
Fun, and an interesting look at the times (there is no sign of the
Great Depression). Otherwise, about what you'd expect.

Fifty-Two McGs. 2/10/07.

A memorial collection
of the best
obituaries by the late, great NY Times writer Robert McG. Thomas, Jr.,
master of the form.

The Privilege of the Sword, by Ellen Kushner.
1/23/07.

The book that falls chronologically between Swordspoint and
The Fall of the Kings, the two previous novels set in the world
of the nameless riverside city. It fills in quite a lot of information,
introduces Katherine Talbert, and brings back some of the characters
from Swordspoint.

I found Katherine enormously annoying for the first hundred
pages or so; if you do too, stick with the book anyway. She changes a
lot during the course of the story and the plot eventually gets
underway in interesting ways. There is, I think, a big plot point
left hanging at the conclusion, so perhaps we'll get more set in
the same world.

If you're new to the series, read Swordspoint
first,
then this book, and finish with The Fall of the Kings. Yes,
you should try to find the two Alec & Richard short stories too.

The Dragon Waiting, by John M. Ford. 1/15/07.

I first tried
to read The Dragon Waiting a few years ago; about 40 pages in,
for some reason, I stopped. Maybe I found it too obscure or too
confusing - I can't remember.

This time it took, though, and I zipped right through, wishing at the
end that there were more (and in more than one way). It's an alternate
history, set in a 15th century where Byzantium is a power nearly across
Europe, numerous gods are worshipped (among them Jesus Christ - but
Christianity is a minor cult, not the dominant religion), magic works,
and, oh yes, there are vampires. Highly recommended, for its
elegance and the vivid characters especially.

Heat, by Bill Buford. 1/8/07.

Overly ambitious
home cook
has midlife crisis (I assume), joins the Babbo kitchen, goes to Italy, and
finds...philosophy. That short description doesn't really do this funny
and perceptive book justice, though. If you read it, you'll understand why
any sensible amateur cook stays the hell out of cooking school and
professional kitchens. Bufford gets burned by every hot liquid in the
kitchen, cut by many implements, and learns how do a lot of very cool
things. I'd like to be able to butcher a cow leg like that too.

Adding to the fun, one of the sous chefs at Google used to work at Babbo;
he found me reading Heat one day and signed my copy on the page
where he's mentioned. On the down side, whoever edited Heat needs
remedial lessons in how to ensure that the verb and subject match in
number.

Wyrd Sisters, by Terry Pratchett.

Well, I
think I
read
this in 2007. I was sick from Christmas to New Year's, so it's hard to
remember what, exactly, I read when. It's one of the earlier Discworld
novels, featuring the three witches, Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax, and
Magrat Garlick. It's extremely funny in that sometimes dry, sometimes
belly-laugh, always-clever Pratchett way.

Books I've been in the middle of since 2009 and might finish some day:

Gimme Shelter, by Mary Elizabeth Williams

Arlette, by Nicholas Freeling, if I can find it.

The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice, by Catherynne
M. Valente.

The Great Influenza

Hard Rain, by Janwillem van der Wettering, if I can find it. I
cannot
remember if I finished this or not, largely because I first read it
in the 1980s.

Understanding Toscanini, by Joseph Horowitz. Can't
remember how this fell by the wayside. A controversial, now
20-year-old, book.

Books I started in 2010 or 2011 and am in the middle of right
now:

Memoirs, by Hector Berlioz

Chopin's Polish Ballade, by Jonathan Bellman

The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson

Books I started and will not be finishing:

Remix, by Lawrence Lessig, even though it's driving me
crazy.

Low Life, by Luc Sante. Too much, enough, though very
interesting. Thanks, Patrick, for taking it off my hands.